HTC shoots for bigger user base in the region

Watchiranont Thongtep
The Nation
Tokyo August 22, 2014 1:00 am

Trend-setting Japan, Taiwan in focus

HTC Corporation, a leading mobile-phone manufacturer, aims to expand its user base by focusing on key markets such as Japan and its home base of Taiwan, which are considered trend-setters for advanced mobile technology in the Asia-Pacific region.

After its success in both markets, HTC hopes to persuade tech-savvy users in other key markets, including Thailand, to become its fans.

"Over two years ago, HTC launched the HTC J Butterfly, which directly focused on the Japan market," chief executive officer Peter Chou said this week at the "HTC Conference 2014" in Tokyo. "The company got tremendous momentum after that. Meanwhile, HTC J Butterfly has become the best-seller for KDDI," HTC's telecom-operator partner in Japan.

At the event, HTC announced the launch of the all-new HTC J Butterfly HTC23 to the Japanese market. It will be marketed as HTC Butterfly 2 in Taiwan and leading mobile carriers in Southeast Asia.

Jack Tong, president for the North Asia region at HTC Corp, predicted that after the launch of this model in Taiwan, its sales performance would be tremendous, as the consumers in that market had a similar taste to that of Japanese.

Tong said his company wanted to extend the life cycle of the Butterfly series and expand into other major countries where mobile users acknowledged that their taste was also similar to Japanese.

The new model will hit the shelves in KDDI retail shops on August 29, while HTC Butterfly 2 will be available in Taiwan on September 2. It will be also sold though major wireless carriers and retailers in Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

The company says it put its focus on what customers need and expect when it designed this phone. Therefore, it is waterproof and dust-proof. It also comes up with special features like a TV tuner, 13-megapixel camera, full high-definition video and high-quality sound system. There are three colours, rouge (red), indigo (blue) and canvas (white).

In Thailand, HTC has a partnership with Total Access Communication (DTAC), and its phones are also available through local retailers such as Jaymart.

In terms of product development, Darren Sng, head of global products at HTC, said the market had changed, and competition had become more intense as the high-end tier faced saturation stage in line with rapid changes in sales distribution.

The company understands that the retail and online sales channels continue to increase while sales through mobile operators are declining. However, Tong said his company would maintain a good balance in the key channels by creating new things like the HTC Dot View cover or even diversifying into mobile applications.